As by far Britain's biggest building society, Nationwide often sets the standard to which others must aspire. Money Mail has recommended its savings accounts, cards and home loans. But the benefits have been slowly stripped away. Nationwide appears to have forgotten that, as a building society, it is owned by its customers and they should be its overriding concern. And it has a special responsibility as the only real alternative to banks. Here, JAMES CONEY and SYLVIA MORRIS put Nationwide on trial.

THE DEFENDANT

With its £202billion assets, Nationwide, formed in 1848, dwarfs all the other building societies. It holds £128billion of savings for 13 million customers and dishes out £136billion of loans for 2.5million homeowners.

It is Britain's third-biggest mortgage lender - ahead of Barclays, HSBC and RBS/Natwest - and the second largest holder of savings. It has 900 branches and, in the past, has used its muscle to campaign tirelessly for better personal finance education, the scrapping of fee- charging cash machines and rip- off currency conversions.

The case against: Charles and Stella Gratix with daughter Bethan - Nationwide has disappeared from their home in Llanidloes, Powys

THE CHARGES

CUSTOMER SERVICE: Money Mail receives a constant stream of complaints about the society and the brusque way many readers feel that their complaints have been handled.

The downward trend became apparent last year when Nationwide was overwhelmed by the numbers attempting to transfer their cash Isas to the society. Initially, it denied there was any problem, but was later forced to stop accepting transfers while it sorted out the mess.

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More recently, we have received complaints about how Nationwide calculates interest on its fixed-rate bonds. Other complaints have come from those who were told they could not pay their credit card bill using a debit card over the phone and a man who was told he could not take out mortgage protection insurance because he was not a new customer.

The society has also shut 15 branches in the past 12 months. Only some are due to duplication of branches arising from its merger with the Portman two years ago.

The defence: Nationwide acknowledges it has had problems with its Isa transfers, credit card handling and bereavement processing. But over the past two years it says complaint levels have fallen. In key areas of member surveys such as willingness to recommend to others and service levels, it is scoring higher each year.

And bosses argue that all the takeovers have had members' interests at heart. It refutes allegations that Nationwide has put members' interests behind those of the Government.

'Everything we have done has been in the interest of building value for Nationwide members,' says Tony Prestedge, group development director at Nationwide.

'There has been no Government intervention. Nationwide is coming through the financial crisis with its brand intact.'

SAVINGS ACCOUNTS: At one time, Nationwide was in our Best Buys table with its internet-based account and cash Isa. But now e-Savings pays a pathetic 0.36 per cent after tax (0.45 per cent before tax); CashBuilder, its High Street instant access account, pays 0.08 per cent (0.1 per cent); while its instant access cash Isa pays a shameful 0.25 per cent.

The society was first to introduce an appealing account for pensioners, but Monthly Income 60+ now pays just 0.44 per cent (0.55 per cent), while other building societies pay as much as 1.8 per cent (2.25 per cent). It remains in our Best Buys table only because it's available across the country.

Its Smart Account for children at 0.75 per cent pays more than base rate, but is easily beaten by rivals. Nationwide is also playing dirty tricks with savers. Its latest savings offering, Champion Saver, is one of the most complex accounts on the market.

The interest rate will be linked to eight other accounts from competitors, though only the best five will be used. It has a 1.1 percentage point bonus until January 2011. But the society demands you give 60 days' notice if you want to take any of your savings out of your account.

The launch comes shortly after it closed two other notice accounts to new savers on which it pays much lower rates. It pays just 0.16 per cent (0.2 per cent) on its 90-day notice account Capital-Builder and 0.24 per cent (0.3 per cent) on its postal account Direct 60. It also runs a string of closed accounts under its Cheshire label.

Earlier this year, Cheshire closed its Easy Saver account, which pays just 0.08 per cent (0.1 per cent), even if you limit the number of withdrawals each year to just four. It also pays this pitiful rate on its notice accounts closed to new savers.

The defence: Nationwide argues that many of its rates do not appear in best buys tables because these are dominated by banks and building societies desperate to take savers' money for a short time.

'This is not something in which we are interested in competing aggressively,' says Chris Rhodes, product and marketing director at Nationwide.

'That is money that is just going to go through the market time and again. We want to be good value for money over the medium to long term.'

Nationwide says it has only reduced rates on accounts in line with the falls in Bank of England base rate and sometimes less.

Under its no-penalty transfer policy, you can switch your money out of a closed account to any other account in its range without notice or loss of interest - unusual among banks and building societies.

It has also avoided the trick used by banks where they launch a top-paying account, attract new money and then close it to new savers.

Then they launch another version of the account paying a top rate to new savers while cutting the interest rate sharply on the closed version. And it has adopted Money Mail's guidelines on its Champion Account and is giving savers notice when the bonus is about to run out.

MORTGAGES: Earlier this year, Nationwide introduced a new standard mortgage rate to which borrowers revert when their current deal ends. Currently most existing customers will move on to Nationwide's base mortgage rate (BMR) of 2.5 per cent.

But this is being scrapped as it's costing the society a packet. So those taking out a new deal will instead move on to the standard mortgage rate (SMR) - at 3.99 per cent.

To woo them onto this higher rate, existing customers are being offered the chance to move to deals that are cheaper than new customers get. The sting in the small print is that they will lose their link to the BMR and instead, at the end of the deal, will move to the higher SMR.

Nationwide has also added an upfront, non-refundable £99 booking fee.

The defence: As the second-largest mortgage lender, Nationwide says it's not been immune to having its profitability levels stripped by the credit crunch. It argues that customers are not forced onto new products and that existing borrowers can stay on the old standard rate as long as they wish.

'The old standard rate is not something that is affordable for new customers in the current interest rate environment, simply because it is costing us more,' says Mr Rhodes.

'We have changed the pricing of our products so that those customers who pose the least risk get the best deals.'

The case for: Amy Boast is pleased with the service she has got from Nationwide

CURRENT ACCOUNTS: The sign for many members that things were changing at Nationwide was when it scrapped free currency conversion for all transactions.

This was one of Nationwide's key policies and one it campaigned on. But today it adds a 0.84 per cent currency conversion charge to overseas transactions made with its debit or credit card outside Europe. Meanwhile, it claims a five-star rating from data analyst defacto for Flex-Account, its current account.

But this was given before Nationwide stopped paying interest on it. And the overdraft rate on the account has soared - from 9.9 per cent in June 2008 to 18.9 per cent.

The defence: Nationwide says it was not easy for it to make the decision to charge for overseas transactions. However, the card is still free in Europe and, despite the fee for other countries, transactions are still the cheapest.

It also argues that the overdraft is lower than many of the other free High Street current accounts.

Are you a Nationwide customer? Or have you moved elsewhere? Tell us what you think about Britain's biggest building society - and whether it's guilty or not of offering its customers a good deal. Email us at money.mail@ dailymail.co.uk or write to: Nationwide, Money Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT. For a full statement by Nationwide's chief executive Graham Beale, visit: www.thisismoney.co.uk/nationwide.

THE CASE AGAINST

Charles Gratix, 66, (see picture at top), is switching his savings from Nationwide to Yorkshire Building Society to earn a better rate of interest. With his wife Stella and daughter Bethan, 15, he has moved to Yorkshire after Nationwide closed its agency in Llanidloes, Powys.

Nationwide closed up shop even though it was the only building society in the mid-Wales town - then Yorkshire stepped in to fill the gap. 'The move is a combination of convenience and earning a better rate,' says Charles. 'Nationwide's closure was a kick in the teeth for the community. I don't want to use internet or postal accounts, nor do I want to make a 30-mile round trip to use a branch.'

THE CASE FOR

When solicitor Amy Boast took a job involving a lot of foreign travel, she wanted to save costs. So she moved to a Nationwide credit card and opened a FlexAccount.

'Whenever I went on holiday, I was conscious of how much higher my credit card bill seemed to be when I got back,' says the 28-year-old (pictured) from Crondall, Hants.

'You just don't think about the charges when you are abroad.' Amy, who travels to Spain a lot, but also has trips to Boston and Sweden coming up, took out the Nationwide credit card six months ago and then signed up to the current account.

'I really notice how much money I've saved by using the Nationwide card,' she says. 'It's just the cheapest way of spending when you go abroad.'